Alice the Second
by Final Rose
Summary: Alice had never believed the stories her mentally insane grandfather told her- until the same sort of things started to happen to her...
1. Insanity

**Title:** Alice the Second

**Date Started: **September 24, 2004

**Author name:** Final Rose

**Author email:**

**Category:** Books

**Sub Category:** Alice in Wonderland

**Rating:** PG-13

**Summary:** Alice used to think that the stories her grandfather told her weren't true. After all, he lived in a mental institution. But one day, things start happening that make her question her own insanity.

**DISCLAIMER:** This story is based on characters and situations not belonging to the author. The author is making no money, and no copyright or trademark infringement is intended.

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**Chapter One: **Insanity

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She sat on granpapa's knee, him bouncing her as he told her stories. It was Saturday. She always got to see him on Saturday, where he lived in the place of cold metal and cleanliness.

Alice was seven. Her parents hadn't taught her the word "suicide," or told her that her grandpapa was "mad as mad can be." She just thought that his stories were good.

He told her one story in particular, about a girl who had the same name as her. The girl was poor, and famished, but still very happy. And one day, she saw a rabbit leap into the woods. Being hungry as she was, she leapt after it so she could cook it and eat it. Alice always scrunched up her nose at this part. Who would want to eat a rabbit? But grandpapa assured her that Alice- the story Alice- wouldn't eat the rabbit in the end.

So Alice followed the rabbit down the hole, and discovered Wonderland...

"I don't want to go!"

Alice's mother crossed her arms and glared at her teenage daughter sternly. "You will go. Your grandfather expects you to come, every Saturday, like clockwork. You can't be late, now!"

Alice pouted. "But he's crazy, Mom!" She threw her hands up in the air exasperatedly. "He's- he's-"

"As mad as a hatter?"

"Yes!" Alice thew her arms down to her side, sighing dramatically. "He always tells those same old stories, and goes on and on about fairy tales and things. But he believes them! He actually believes in the nonsense that comes out of his mouth!"

Alice's mom ran a hand through her hair. "Fine. I'll go without you. But you should feel ashamed of yourself. As mad as he is, he's family, and you're the only person he has left after his son died." She stared off into the distance, looking suddenly weary and tired. But Alice didn't care- she hated going to see the old man, now that she was older and he was too senile to even wipe the spit from his mouth. And she hated the place that smelled like death, no matter how much people tried to cover the smell up with cleaning supplies.

Alice stayed home when her mother left that afternoon. She felt guilty for a moment, then flicked the guilt away. It wasn't a big deal if she missed one Saturday with her grandpapa.

So somehow, in the midst of boredom and an odd guilt, not to mention a weird feeling- she had never stayed home on a Saturday, she was always at grandpapa's- somehow, she found herself wandering out into her backyard. And then past the gate. Down into the woods, through the trees, all the way to the brook and across the other side.

It was exhilarating, being outside and to places she had never been. Absolutely spontaneous. Crazy. And dangerous. She had never felt so _alive_, though. A part of her shouted at her insane part that she really should go back- but she shoved that part away. It felt good to get the cold mountain air into her lungs.

Alice only stopped when she reached a small clearing. Light filtered from the trees, making polka dots on the grassy forest floor. The smell of pines wafted through the air, and she had to sit with her back again a tree in order to get her breath back.

A sound alerted her to a small creature intruding on her peace. A fluff of white, pure and blinding, hopped into the clearing. Alice watched the bunny with growing nausea. An instinct told her that something was wrong.

She heard the sound of a canine growl as the bunny stopped in panic. Its red eyes looked at her deploringly, its skin twitching with nervousness and panic. Two yellow eyes looked out from the darkness as the hunter prepared to pounce-

"Run," Alice whispered, like an audience member too far into a horror flick to realize that she was talking out loud. The bunny ran, and Alice saw the wolf barely miss it as it streaked past her.

The wolf turned, going for another try, when Alice's heart leapt to her throat and she had to take action. She ran past the wolf, barely noticing her own danger, and scooped the bunny up in her arms. It shook against her like a leaf as she darted through the forest, howls of anger following her path.

Alice knew where to go. There was somewhere safe, her instinct told her, and she ran in a straight path. The bunny's shivering increased as the howls of anger grew louder. Alice had to get to the safe place as fast as possible, because if the wolf got them it would get her too.

A tree appeared in her line of sight, a tree like no other around it. It was a giant in a sea of dwarfs. Alice knew instantly that it was the safe place, and she crouched near it with the bunny in arms. She could hear the growls of the wolf now, and it was only a matter of time.

The bunny leapt into the bushes surrounding the tree, then disappeared. Alice hesitated, then went diving in after it in a mad sort of last dash. Something caught on her ankle- something grabbed her ankle, a canine something and it struck her that bushes were no protection from teeth and she was a fool-

But another something grabbed her hair and dragged her forcibly _into _the tree dragged her until her ankle was hers again. Before she knew it, she felt safe and protected. The growls were far away, muffled by something thick and protective.

Alice looked up, shaking, through the hair covering her face. What she saw made her think that perhaps the crazy gene skipped a generation, and she had caught a bit of her grandpapa's curse.


	2. Lion's Den

Chapter Two: Lion's Den

"Who are you?" Alice asked the figure in front of her through her curtain of hair. She couldn't see very well in the tree- _in _the treeshe thought, that can't be right- and so she thought maybe what she was seeing was a lion standing up like a man. But that wasn't possible.

Against her body, the bunny was starting to calm down. She stroked it in between its ears, not really sure why she wanted to keep it safe but knowing that she did. The threat of the wolf was far away, now; Alice could feel warm bark behind her and knew that if she turned around there would be no screen of bushes in sight.

"I am Daniel," the voice growled, recalling Alice to the present and her question. The man — surely a man, she thought- stood in front of her, hidden in the darkness.

"Thank you, Daniel. I don't know why, but you saved me."

"You are Daughter," he said, as if it made any sense. Alice's brows creased in confusion.

"Daughter? I'm no one's I mean, I'm Alice. Nice to meet you. Do you think maybe we could get out of here?"

"I can lead you to the entrance, but I cannot follow you out."

"Thank you, Daniel." Alice used one hand to hold the bunny and the free hand to prop herself up. As she stood, the shadow that had been Daniel stopped blocking the light behind him from her line of sight; and when the shadows fell off him, she saw what he looked like and screamed.

The bunny burrowed itself into her jacket while Alice stared ahead of her and the beast stared back. There was a certain stillness then, and Alice compared it to the quiet before a storm.

"Please," the beast said, sighing wearily. "Do not be frightened. I am this way because I was a coward and a fool; but I never have been cruel. Please; I will help you get to the entrance of my den, and you can leave."

Alice shivered. All this was so unreal that she closed her eyes and counted to ten. When she could still hear the breathing of the beast, she counted to ten again. And again. But nothing happened, until she fervently wished that he would just eat her and get it over with.

"Please." So quiet- anyone listening would have wondered who was really frightened. "Please, do not be afraid, Isabelle"

Alice opened her eyes when she heard this. "Isabelle?"

The beast sighed again, weariness resting on his shoulders, a thing too heavy to carry by himself- but too dangerous to give half the load to someone else. "Nothing," he whispered. "Please, just follow me."

"Alright." Alice doubted her own words, but she had nothing else to do but listen to the beast. "I'll follow you Daniel."

"Thank you." There was so much gratitude in his humanlike voice that Alice couldn't bear to tell him the he scared the shit out of her. So instead she followed far behind him, trying not to think too closely about what made lions walk and talk. She tried to rationalize it in her mind- she even considered him being a mascot to a baseball team- but her heart, perhaps the wisest organ in her body, knew that the being she followed was a man-lion with a gentle spirit.

The trek was long, and as Alice walked with the bunny in her arms she realized how sore her feet were. She thought about her walk through the woods, and it was with the starting clarity of a hung over drunk that she realized how long and far she had walked. It had to have taken her half a day at least to get as far into the forest as she had. There was no telling how worried her mother was, or how angry she'd be when Alice got back.

"Please hurry, Daniel. My mother will want me home."

"I'm afraid, Daughter, that your home is very far away indeed."

Alice tried to puzzle out what he had said, but before she could ask him what he meant he had stopped and turned around. Behind him, a few yards away, was the exit to the long tunnel Alice had walked through.

"Thank you," she said, walking by him with the largest berth possible. "For all you've done. The wolf would've had me- I don't know how you got me in the tree- some sort of illusion-" Alice fell short when she realized the she was babbling and the beast was saying nothing at all.

"Thank you," she finished, lamely.

"Do not thank me yet. In the long journey ahead you may wish I had left you in the jaws of the wolf."

Alice frowned at him, but she said nothing. Instead, she walked through the entrance without looking back.

Daniel stood in his den, his cage, for a long time after she was gone, until she was out of sight. Even after that, he stared at the shadows that followed her, wishing he could somehow help her. But he could not. Until the day the Queen of Hearts was overthrown, he would be stuck in his den- and a lion he would remain.


End file.
